Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement
1 October 2010
The Unemployed People’s Movement will March on Jacob Zuma in Durban on 14 October 2010
On the 8th of September 2010 the UPM in Durban sent a letter of demands to Jacob Zuma. His office acknowledge reciept of that letter (which is pasted in below this email) but he has never given us the courtesy of a response to our demands. Therefore we have no choice but to take our desperation and anger to the streets. We will be marching in Durban on 14 October 2010 in support of the demands in this letter.
In addition to these demands we also demanding an end to the attacks on democracy from the ANC.
We reject the media tribunal and the information bill. These are quite clearly nothing other than attempts by the predator state to protect itself from public scrutiny. We are very aware of the class biases in the media. Our own movement has been written about as if it were criminal and as if our most basic and legitimate demand – for enough food to eat -is a threat to society when clearly anyone in their right mind can see that it is poverty and hunger that are a threat to society. But censorship is never the answer. The answer to the elite bias in our media is to further democratise the media by breaking up the monopolies and supporting independent community media.
We also reject the ongoing repression of the movements and organisations of the working class around the country. We stand with our comrades in Hangberg, in Harrismith and in the Landless People’s Movement and Abahlali baseMjondolo as they confront the direct or indirect violence of the predator state. We ourselves have suffered repression. Nozipho Mnetshana was kept under house arrest after the UPM occupied the supermarkets in Durban on 22 July 2009 to eat bread without paying in protest at food prices. Ayanda Kota was assaulted in a police van outside parliament in Cape Town at the opening of parliament this year. Right now Ayanda Kota is receiving threats from the ANC in Grahamstown. After the recent experiences of the Landless People’s Movement in Johannesburg and Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban we take these threats very seriously.
We call on progressive organisations to unite in a militant and uncompromising rejection of the attacks on the media and on the independent organisations of the working class. A line has been drawn and it is the responsibility of all progressive individuals and movements to take a clear stand against the attack that the ANC is waging on our democracy. We intend to work with all the independent and progressive formations of the working class to defend and deepen democracy from below.
Umanyano Ngamandla.
Nozipho Mnetshana, UPM chairperson in Durban: 079 7405 074
Dudu Kweyana, UPM Deputy Chairperson in Durban: 082 8278 199
Ayanda Kota, UPM Chaiperson in Grahamstown: 078 6256462